teaching

Facilitating Complex Workshops Through Simplexity

course overview

This fast paced course introduces the student to the practical art of facilitation. The material is divided into the four broad topics of (1) theory, (2) areas of application, (3) session design and (4) practice.

Upon completing the course, the students will be ready to start a lifetime of practice.

course objectives

• Defining facilitation and its theoretical underpinnings
• Establishing the scope of a workshop and the prerequisites for its success
• Choosing a suitable model upon which to base a sound workshop design
• Designing workshop flow and contingencies
• Practicing how to deliver a workshop and how to spontaneously redesign the session, in mid-flow, should the need arise
• Having a great time

learning experience

Your learning experience with this ‘Too Serious' course is designed to deliver to you a high level of interactivity and personal challenge. You will experience a richness and depth in every aspect of this engaging and practical topic. You will not be presented with static theoretical ideas, rather you will be expected to engage, decide, design, extend your skills and apply the concepts to which you will be exposed.

Course Curriculum

Defining facilitation and its theoretical underpinnings

• define the difference between meeting management and facilitation
• define messy problems
• explore the components of messy problems and their consequences
• develop an appreciation for the psychological aspects of human functioning and sense making
• extend the psychological aspects to group work

Establishing the scope of a workshop and the prerequisites for its success

• define the roles of broker, client and stakeholder
• explore the outcome of the session
• select a workshop model
• interactively modify the model to produce a session design
• set appropriate prework
• clarify meeting logistics and documentation support

Choosing a suitable model upon which to base a sound workshop design

• learn five basic models as metaphors for structuring group work
• develop the skill to choose between the models based on the session outcome
• practice combining the models for special situations

Designing workshop flow and contingencies

• learn four methods of idea generation
• learn three methods of idea shaping
• build a suitable system model for the problem
• choose an appropriate action planning format
• apply the principles of double loop learning to session design
• learn how to ‘block out' suitable chunks of time to achieve subordinate outcomes
• appreciate the landmines in different types of session

Practicing how to deliver a workshop and how to spontaneously redesign the session, in mid-flow, should the need arise

• appreciate the session as theatre
• set up the audience with an icebreaker
• understand the do's and don'ts of presenting
• keep track of time and sensitively redirect unproductive group rathole chatter
• determine when to use technology
• discover handy templates to facilitate sub-group work
• show sub-groups how to present their work
• redesign a session ‘in the moment'
• handle personal fear in a time of crisis
• wrap up the session and recognize the productive work done
• post session audit follow-up with the broker

Having a great time

• learn to relax
• enjoy the experience
• put your workshop audiences at ease through the use of humour and story telling

course logistics